Avoiding the smack of highbrow soap opera or lowbrow "Desperate Housewives"-style
ribaldry, "Little Children" is
the incisive, troubling, expertly-acted screen adaptation of Tom Perrotta's novel
about marital infidelity, paranoia and aberrant behavior in a well-manicured
Massachusetts suburb. Attractive, discontented young mother Sarah (Kate Winslet)
spends the afternoon with her daughter at the local playground, where they encounter
handsome, restless stay-at-home dad Brad (Patrick Wilson) and his son. After
pulling a harmless prank on a coterie of gossiping playground moms, Brad and
Sarah are drawn together and become increasingly estranged from their respective
spouses (Jennifer Connelly, Gregg Edelman). Meanwhile, the community is rent
asunder by the return of a convicted sex offender (Jackie Earle Haley) who moves
back into his mother's house and becomes the target of an obsessive, disgraced
cop (Noah Emmerich). The bemused tone of an unseen narrator provides a dryly
humorous counterpoint to the proceedings. Director Todd Field, whose previous
feature was the celebrated suburban tragedy "In the Bedroom," wrote the screenplay
for "Little Children" in collaboration with Perrotta, so the original author
had a chance to oversee his vision. The film's milieu and its trip into the dark
underbelly of modern life recall the similar setting and theme of 1999's "American
Beauty," minus the hallucinogenic reveries and overheated caricature. Because
of its more realistic tone, "Little Children" may be the more disquieting of
the two movies. Title aside, it's not kid stuff.